The mobility of many physically impaired persons is severely restricted on sandy surfaces such as beaches. Physically feeble persons, such as the elderly, find it extremely difficult to walk in the sand because the sand tends to give way and become displaced when pressure is placed upon one's foot during walking. This problem is even more acute for persons who can walk only with the aid of canes, crutches or walkers, and is especially acute for persons in wheelchairs. It is virtually impossible to roll a wheelchair over a sandy beach, even with the help of an able bodied person pushing the wheelchair. Wheelchairs tend to sink several inches into the sand, and any rocking motion of the wheelchair tends to sink the wheel chair even deeper into the sand. Consequently, many physically impaired persons have avoided beaches and have been effectively precluded from participating in all the pleasurable activities associated with beaches.
In an effort to provide physically handicapped persons with access to beaches, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has installed landing mats consisting of a series of metal bars arranged in a parallel, side-by-side arrangement with their ends banded together by wire or cable. These landing mats have several drawbacks. They tend to become extremely hot to the point of being unusable. Also, the landing mats are heavy, cumbersome to transport, and expensive. Moreover, once the landing mat is placed in position on the beach, the landing mat is difficult to move, with the undesirable result that physically handicapped persons are confined to the boundaries of the landing mat. So-called "sand ladders" have also been used to permit physically handicapped persons access to beaches. The sand ladders are in all respects similar to the metal landing mats, except that wooden slats are substituted for the metal bars. The sand ladders suffer from the same drawbacks as the metal landing mats.